Oilers sign Mikko Koskinen to a one-year contract with $2.5 million AAV

According to the Oilers’ Twitter account, Mikko Koskinen has officially signed a one-year contract with the team that will see him return to North America after wrapping up a stellar season in the KHL.

While rumours initially circled the Twittersphere that Koskinen would be signing a multi-year deal, the official word tells a different story. With a one-year contract now in his pocket, the Finnish netminder will have a season to prove himself and try to carve out a spot for himself with the Oilers, beating out Al Montoya for the backup spot with the club.

Koskinen, a former second-round pick with the Islanders in 2009, spent the last five seasons in the KHL after heading back to Europe with only four NHL games on his resume. In 31 regular season games played with St. Petersburg SKA last season, Koskinen posted a very nice .931 save percentage to go along with a 1.69 GAA. Now, while those numbers are certainly impressive it will remain to be seen how that will translate in the NHL. Remember, Anders Nilsson was also a top KHL goaltender the year before he returned to the NHL after registering a splendid .936 save percentage in 38 games played.

Koskinen was originally drafted by the New York Islanders with the 31st overall pick in the 2009 draft. He would eventually play four games with the Islanders during the 2010-11 season, posting a forgettable .873 save percentage. He would play three games in North America in 2011-12 before heading back to Europe and fading into oblivion.

But, over the past couple years, Koskinen has made a name for himself as one of the top goalies in the KHL. This year has really been Koskinen’s breakout season. He posted a .931 save percentage in 31 games for SKA St. Petersburg, who are currently in the league’s Conference Finals. Beyond that, he also capitalized on NHL players not being in the Olympics, posting a .932 save percentage in five games in Pyeongchang for Finland.

***UPDATE****

According to Pierre LeBrun, Koskinen’s deal is worth $2.5 million with a $2 million salary and a $500K signing bonus.

THE WRAP

From where I blog, signing Mikko Koskinen after a lights-out season in the KHL makes sense for a team looking for upgrades in net. That said, let’s not pretend that the KHL is even a five-dollar cab ride away from the NHL in terms of overall skill so I think it’s unreasonable to expect the same level of success in Edmonton as he got in St. Petersburg. Like I said before, we’ve seen this movie play out with Anders Nilsson before and while I hope things work out differently with Koskinen, we don’t know what will happen until the guy starts getting some at-bats. Here’s hoping the guy can come in and stand on his head and make all of this “unproven” talk go away, but until we get to October all we can do is guess. All the best, Mikko. Do the hockey, buddy.

What do you guys think? Do you like the signing? Let me know in the comments section.

124 Comments |

Being an Oilers fan is really tough. You are in a Canadian market where supposedly the fan base is intelligent hockey fans, then you come to places like this and realize there are lots of Oilers fans who really aren’t that knowledgeable at all.

Anyone suggesting the Oilers were going to go and get Carter Hutton clearly have ZERO hockey intelligence. In the 2016-2017 season with the Blues he played in 30 games, was 13-8-2, 4 shut outs, .913%, 2.39 GA. Pretty damn good numbers, borderline starters numbers. This year after Allen faultered AGAIN, in 32 games, he was 17-7-3, 3 shut outs, .931% and 2.09 GA. If the guy has more starts, those are vezina numbers. So the Blues would be beyond stupid to let him go. IF he does go, some team is going to offer him their starters job. The guy is going go get paid and paid a lot more than 2.5 mill. If you don’t know that, you are clearly clueless.

Then I see someone suggesting Cam Ward. Other than being raised in Sherwood Park, there is absolutely NOTHING appealing about Ward. He’s 34 yrs old and hasn’t post an above .910% in the last 6 SEASONS. He was .906% this year. Why the hell would anyone who knows anything about hockey suggest the Oilers should bring in a 34 yr old goalie who can’t be better than .910? People are complaining about Talbot’s .908 this season being crap yet some people think bringing in Ward who was .906 this season and .905 last year is a good idea? WOW.

So talbot is getting $4MM and is expected to play 55 or so games (plus playoffs(and this backup is getting $2.5MM with no history with the team and play maybe 25 games. By that simple comparison it’s an over pay on the backup.

You have just realized that by now? They are those who complains about the team’s performances and yet still filling the seats with the league second highest ticket price to watch them fail year after year. They are obsessed with the terribleness of the Oilers, it is a twisted love that they don’t want the team to be better.

Chiarelli is a pure, unadulterated idiot with this signing. The previous comment about Scrivens is salient to this discussion along with recognizing that the KHL is NOT the NHL. While it is true that we may have challenges plucking RFA’s like Grubauer away from their teams, there are also UFA’s like Khudobin and Hutton out there. Can we sign them? I would like to say yes, but Chiarelli is too much of a twit to get the job done. I would rather have given Khudobin or Hutton $3.0M a year or something less with a performance bonus and save $1M on Montoya by sending him to the Condors. Along with the fact that Chiarelli and our management braintrust (or lack thereof) continue to think that Dustin Schwartz is a good goal coach, this new signing shows that once again this moron of a GM doesn’t realize how important it is too shore up this position. Chiarelli is clueless and absolutely too willing to accept mediocrity.

Unless Mikko comes in and kicks the goalie door down with his play, this is way too much of an overpay…for a backup goalie no less. Another brilliant Chia move…at least it’s one year only if he turns out to be another Anders Nilsson.

The best calculated risk in this scenario was to do nothing. Montoya was a .912 or better for the 2 season prior to this past. Additionally, in his 9 seasons getting NHL action he has had a losing record only twice. Whereas Talbot was .925 over his previous 4 seasons. By simply returning to their own averages, the Oilers have an above average duo that generally wins more than they lose.
Sick of this small sample size panic button pressing organization. That 2 mill would have improved save percentage a lot more if it was used towards a defensemen.

You Bet! Here is some basic math to demonstrate how to come up with an average:
Talbots sv% over his initial 4 season in the nhl:
.941 + .926 + .917 + .919 = 3.703
Now we simply divide by 4 to come up with the combined average:
3.703/4 = .92575 (so if I rounded properly his average is actually .926)

Here is the important part, that your own comment touches on. He hasn’t been as good as an Oiler. So could being an Oiler perhaps be a reason a goalie would regress? Has being a goalie in Edmonton over the last 11 years gone well for anyone? This is a team sport and even the best goalies in the world need a competent group in front of them to boost their stats. Talbot had some of this last year but by and far the D has been subpar for him and therefore addressing the D is more important than gambling 2 mill from your limited budget on a hot tender from lower Europe league.